Education workers in Mississauga and Brampton vote overwhelmingly for strike action

Educational Assistants, Early Childhood Educators, and Child and Youth Care Practitioners in Mississauga and Brampton are on the verge of walking off the job after unionized members voted 98 per cent in favour of a strike.

Nearly 80 per cent of the 4,000 members of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 2100 employed by the Peel District School Board participated in the three-day strike vote, with the overwhelming result directly linked to the board “dragging their heels in bargaining,” said Local 2100 President and Team Chair Melody Hurtubise.

“I’m not the least bit surprised by these strike vote results,” said Hurtubise. “Peel EAs, DECEs, and CYCPs are sick of the disrespect our employer is showing not only at the bargaining table but in our workplaces every day. We are dangerously understaffed, under-resourced, and the employer refuses to address the violence in our schools, or even update our job descriptions.”

For the past seven months, the Peel board has refused to move in negotiations with the union bargaining team, Hurtubise added. The Labour Board has set a conciliation date for December 5 in the hopes of the two sides achieving a resolution.

Outstanding issues include safe staff-to-student ratios, better workloads, more workplace resources, health and safety measures, reasonable supervision times, working from home where possible, and updates to job descriptions.

“Our PDSB members are organized and determined to take on this employer,” chimed in OPSEU/SEFPO President JP Hornick. “What this strike vote shows us is that these workers, most of whom are women and many of whom are racialized, are willing to fight to get the respect and the working conditions they deserve.”

OPSEU/SEFPO education workers across Ontario are covered by the Ontario Council of Education Workers central collective agreement, which was ratified in January and covers most of the central issues. Each OPSEU/SEFPO education worker bargaining unit also negotiates a local collective agreement with their own school board on local issues and working conditions.